I have two grandchildren, 3 and 6. Their parents, despite my complete failures to date, keep wanting me to photograph their birthday parties and things like that when I'm visiting, and have yet to be anything but completely disappointed in the result. They don't understand why I can't do it. They say that if they were birds or frogs or flowers I could do it.
Here is a truly chilling example of what I have done: My granddaughter's birthday cake was being brought out. I am programmed at this point to focus on the face and the eyes. I did. I got great pictures of my granddaughter's face. Not ONE picture had the birthday cake in it. (There was a friend taking pictures also, which is why I'm still living, I think.)
I can, have and will look up event photography. But I wanted to ask you all if you have a hint or two that can help me with this, since they are quite obviously not going to give up. I know some of you do other types of photography, and I'm hoping you can help.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.
I try to avoid anything to do with children of any age, but I've been roped into a couple things like this over the years. and I've been stuck shooting at a few weddings of relatives.
I think one important factor is to simplify everything as much as possible. That means sticking with a single lens as much as possible. If you have or can borrow a "normal" range zoom with a fast aperture (something like 18-60 f/2.8 for your crop sensor 7D) you'd be able to cover most of what goes on. I recommend the fast aperture as I think you should stay with natural light if possible, avoiding the ugly results of a camera mounted flash. This is also a good time to set a higher ISO value so you can get enough shutter speed for the light and action. Your family won't care one bit if there's more noise in the resulting image as long as you catch the happy faces and the main elements. Oh, put your camera on Auto as well - forget trying to work out manual exposures. You might even go with Full Auto (Program mode) just to simplify everything.
If you don't have a fast short zoom consider a fixed focal length 35/18 or 50/1.8. These lenses are inexpensive, especially if you look on CraigsList. Not as flexible as the zoom, but faster and easy to handle. You just have to move around a bit more.
In AZ there are Day of the Dead celebrations in October, where many in the Latino community celebrate their ancestors. I dropped by one of them last year and took only my 18-140 lens on a Nikon D7000 body and had a great time taking photos in the natural outdoor light. This mother and child were happy to pose for me after getting their faces painted (ISO 800, 75mm, 1/320th second at f/8, hand held in the shade). You can be sure I'll visit again this October.
Thank you very much, Richard. The image of the mother and daughter with their faces painted is awesome. In the past I've used my daughter's camera, an Olympus DSLR that she got when we went to Alaska when she graduated from law school, but I think that's been part of the problem. I think I'd feel much more comfortable with my own. I have an 18-55mm f/3.5-5/6 zoom lens that came with the camera, not a prime lens, of course. I don't know if I've ever used it. I can practice with it taking pictures of the kids when I first get there so I can be sure the results are good enough. And I don't know if I would have even thought of using Auto or setting the ISO higher for simplification. I'm feeling a little more hopeful now. :)
I recently had the challenge of photographing a granddaughter and her date for their high school prom. I told them right up front that I was not a people photographer, but using a single zoo lens and a fill flash, it was late afternoon, went ahead. The thing I had to watch out for was not cutting parts of them off, which made the zoom range of the lens very useful, keeping a good eye on the BG, and telling them what to do. It turned out OK. Just really had to concentrate on composition as well as exposure. It is not nature photography for sure! Richard has good advice. My advice for these types of photo challenges is to keep it simple. As long as the subjects look good, the rest is not that important.
In addition, I think you will avoid unpleasant surprises if you do a test set-up before the event. Find out where the light is best, where it is tricky and decide what settings will optimize your chances. Shoot test shots of contrasts...maybe a rumpled white shirt and also some darker clothing, to see where you have to be to avoid blowing all highlights and how to keep shadow detail. Make a plan! Then, at the time of the event and in the midst of the action, be sure to remind yourself to stop once in awhile to check to make sure you did not inadvertently move a setting. Checking histogram on back of camera can be a lifesaver! And if it is REALLY important stuff, shoot raw and maybe bracket exposures.
Barbara, it's important to keep the reason behind the event in mind. Thus, for the birthday party a few shots with the cake, blowing out the candles, opening the presents, games played, etc. are as important as the faces. In most instances, the folks looking at the images afterwards won't be as critical of blown highlights, a touch of softness, edge intrusions,high contrast, etc., as NPNer's are. Your skills will allow you to avoid or minimize the distractions, which will make your shots better than most that might be provided by other attendees with cameras (or phones).
How can you thank me when I haven't responded? Oh wait, there's actually someone else named Lon!
My first suggestion is to not be so hard on yourself. Yeah, easier said than done. And if the family is too judgmental of the images you take... I'd say let everyone use their cell phones. That's what seems to be happening anyway at family gatherings and such.
Like John and other's I've always claimed I'm not a "people photographer" and have avoided the "could you photograph our wedding?" for decades. Until the summer of 2015. I initially declined.. Heck, I didn't even own a DSLR at the time. Daughter of a close family friend, right? I have never wanted the responsibility of capturing photographs of someone's life event. Sorry, just don't want the lifetime of guilt if I screw it up. I honestly can't remember why I agreed. Our friends daughter and husband to be couldn't afford a photographer or rent a hall, etc. Maybe I felt bad and wanted to help. Our friend was photo buff and had a Nikon D700 and some assorted lenses. I agreed to shoot the wedding if he loaned me the camera weeks ahead of time - so I could learn about digital photography and using the dslr. Ha! That should have scared them off up front! The wedding was to be in their backyard so when I went over the pick up the camera, I went at the time of day the wedding was to be held and scouted out the light and asked how things would be set up to get some ideas.
Long story short, all turned out well and there were enough "good" pictures for the couple, family and friends to have some lasting memories. I made an online album and posted the images. Not sure if they every had any printed, but in the end I was happy with what I did.
So a few lessons learned:
1. know the environment you're shooting in; lighting, indoor, outdoor, flash required? etc.
2. I used a single zoom lens; long enough to zoom in for some intimates and close ups, and wide enough for some group photos
3. determine ahead of time the best combo of ISO, aperture to give the best shutter speed to hand hold. Use Aperture priority so you can adjust your aperture that results in good depth while maintaining a high enough shutter speed
4. I find candid, un-staged images come out the best. Be "sneaky" and not so obvious while roaming around taking pics. Yeah, there are plenty of staged and formal settings you want pics of, but don't forget about the candids
5. Take advantage of a zoom. Wider to include things like birthday cakes and expressions of surrounding people. But zoom for more intimate and facial expressions.
6. Remember - the pictures are free - take lots of them. You can always delete bad ones, but you can never create good ones after the fact.
7. Auto focus
8. Be confident with your camera. Last thing you want to do is have to fiddle with settings in the middle of the "event."
9. Think "event" not "subject." In other words, your grandchild isn't the subject. It's the event you're photographing; there are other people there, other subject - like the cake, candles, etc.
BIGGEST negative. You never get any pictures with you in them. Of course other people should be snapping pics too with their phones and pt-n-shoots.
Of course I'm not there and don't know you or your family. To be honest though, this sounds more like personality, family or expectations rather than anything technical. You either take pictures cause you want to and enjoy it, or you say sorry and have someone pay for photographer if it's that important. Don't you get to enjoy the grandkids too? Interesting now, cause I now have a 1yr old grandson. I swear there's a pic or video of him on FB daily. I took him for a walk in the stroller the other day. Just me and him. Brought my camera, sat him in the grass in the shade and started snapping away. I love taking pictures and making photographs.
Lon (the other Lon) :), thank you so very much. You are very perceptive, and your grandson is adorable. That picture and your story about it reminded me of when I was keeping Khalil, my grandson, in 2011 so his parents could have a weekend away. I took him out front and sat him in the grass and took some pictures and sent them to his parents. They were in the grocery store and they said they almost started crying because they missed him so much. :)
Barbara, your grandkids are beautiful and you captured beautiful images of them. SO.... it's clear to me you don't have any issues with getting great images. So that get's back to your original question and post title about "event" photography. Given your proven abilities.... sounds to me like it's just a matter of zooming out on occasion to capture the surrounding story. And with the speed at which we can capture images, you should be able to do both! (intimates and event images.)
Khalil's 7th birthday party was today. The location was changed because of forecast of rain and then rain from a water slide party in the back yard to a party at Leapin' Lizards, a bounce house place.
All of your advice helped a lot. These photos are nothing like your photos of teenagers and adults, but in a place like a huge bounce house with 7-year-olds and their younger siblings it just wasn't possible to get good quality photos, because literally nobody would be still except when they were sitting at the tables eating, and then they still weren't really still.
So my main go-to mantra was to get the event in general, and by all means get the cake. I took way more pictures than these, but this is just a collage of a few of them. My daughter and son-in-law were really happy with them, so remembering that it was event photography and not subject photography saved the day, I think.
The funniest thing is a minute after we got there I realized that since the party wasn't in my daughter's back yard I had absolutely no idea among the hundreds of children there who were guests at Khalil's party. There are four party rooms. So I just had to follow Khalil and take pictures of him and the kids with him at any given time. There are more of those, too, not just these few.
I just wanted to thank you all again for your help. It really made a difference.
I used Full Auto mode, an 18-55mm kit lens, and shot only JPG, because nobody was going to want anything processed (takes too long) and JPG was all they were going to use. I wouldn't call these good quality photos, but they captured what my daughter and son-in-law wanted, so that's what counted.
Discussion
13 repliesHere is a truly chilling example of what I have done: My granddaughter's birthday cake was being brought out. I am programmed at this point to focus on the face and the eyes. I did. I got great pictures of my granddaughter's face. Not ONE picture had the birthday cake in it. (There was a friend taking pictures also, which is why I'm still living, I think.)
I can, have and will look up event photography. But I wanted to ask you all if you have a hint or two that can help me with this, since they are quite obviously not going to give up. I know some of you do other types of photography, and I'm hoping you can help.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.
I think one important factor is to simplify everything as much as possible. That means sticking with a single lens as much as possible. If you have or can borrow a "normal" range zoom with a fast aperture (something like 18-60 f/2.8 for your crop sensor 7D) you'd be able to cover most of what goes on. I recommend the fast aperture as I think you should stay with natural light if possible, avoiding the ugly results of a camera mounted flash. This is also a good time to set a higher ISO value so you can get enough shutter speed for the light and action. Your family won't care one bit if there's more noise in the resulting image as long as you catch the happy faces and the main elements. Oh, put your camera on Auto as well - forget trying to work out manual exposures. You might even go with Full Auto (Program mode) just to simplify everything.
If you don't have a fast short zoom consider a fixed focal length 35/18 or 50/1.8. These lenses are inexpensive, especially if you look on CraigsList. Not as flexible as the zoom, but faster and easy to handle. You just have to move around a bit more.
In AZ there are Day of the Dead celebrations in October, where many in the Latino community celebrate their ancestors. I dropped by one of them last year and took only my 18-140 lens on a Nikon D7000 body and had a great time taking photos in the natural outdoor light. This mother and child were happy to pose for me after getting their faces painted (ISO 800, 75mm, 1/320th second at f/8, hand held in the shade). You can be sure I'll visit again this October.
In addition, I think you will avoid unpleasant surprises if you do a test set-up before the event. Find out where the light is best, where it is tricky and decide what settings will optimize your chances. Shoot test shots of contrasts...maybe a rumpled white shirt and also some darker clothing, to see where you have to be to avoid blowing all highlights and how to keep shadow detail. Make a plan! Then, at the time of the event and in the midst of the action, be sure to remind yourself to stop once in awhile to check to make sure you did not inadvertently move a setting. Checking histogram on back of camera can be a lifesaver! And if it is REALLY important stuff, shoot raw and maybe bracket exposures.
How can you thank me when I haven't responded? Oh wait, there's actually someone else named Lon!
My first suggestion is to not be so hard on yourself. Yeah, easier said than done. And if the family is too judgmental of the images you take... I'd say let everyone use their cell phones. That's what seems to be happening anyway at family gatherings and such.
Like John and other's I've always claimed I'm not a "people photographer" and have avoided the "could you photograph our wedding?" for decades. Until the summer of 2015. I initially declined.. Heck, I didn't even own a DSLR at the time. Daughter of a close family friend, right? I have never wanted the responsibility of capturing photographs of someone's life event. Sorry, just don't want the lifetime of guilt if I screw it up. I honestly can't remember why I agreed. Our friends daughter and husband to be couldn't afford a photographer or rent a hall, etc. Maybe I felt bad and wanted to help. Our friend was photo buff and had a Nikon D700 and some assorted lenses. I agreed to shoot the wedding if he loaned me the camera weeks ahead of time - so I could learn about digital photography and using the dslr. Ha! That should have scared them off up front! The wedding was to be in their backyard so when I went over the pick up the camera, I went at the time of day the wedding was to be held and scouted out the light and asked how things would be set up to get some ideas.
Long story short, all turned out well and there were enough "good" pictures for the couple, family and friends to have some lasting memories. I made an online album and posted the images. Not sure if they every had any printed, but in the end I was happy with what I did.
So a few lessons learned:
1. know the environment you're shooting in; lighting, indoor, outdoor, flash required? etc.
2. I used a single zoom lens; long enough to zoom in for some intimates and close ups, and wide enough for some group photos
3. determine ahead of time the best combo of ISO, aperture to give the best shutter speed to hand hold. Use Aperture priority so you can adjust your aperture that results in good depth while maintaining a high enough shutter speed
4. I find candid, un-staged images come out the best. Be "sneaky" and not so obvious while roaming around taking pics. Yeah, there are plenty of staged and formal settings you want pics of, but don't forget about the candids
5. Take advantage of a zoom. Wider to include things like birthday cakes and expressions of surrounding people. But zoom for more intimate and facial expressions.
6. Remember - the pictures are free - take lots of them. You can always delete bad ones, but you can never create good ones after the fact.
7. Auto focus
8. Be confident with your camera. Last thing you want to do is have to fiddle with settings in the middle of the "event."
9. Think "event" not "subject." In other words, your grandchild isn't the subject. It's the event you're photographing; there are other people there, other subject - like the cake, candles, etc.
BIGGEST negative. You never get any pictures with you in them.
Of course I'm not there and don't know you or your family. To be honest though, this sounds more like personality, family or expectations rather than anything technical. You either take pictures cause you want to and enjoy it, or you say sorry and have someone pay for photographer if it's that important. Don't you get to enjoy the grandkids too? Interesting now, cause I now have a 1yr old grandson. I swear there's a pic or video of him on FB daily. I took him for a walk in the stroller the other day. Just me and him. Brought my camera, sat him in the grass in the shade and started snapping away. I love taking pictures and making photographs.
Lon
You've got this.
All of your advice helped a lot. These photos are nothing like your photos of teenagers and adults, but in a place like a huge bounce house with 7-year-olds and their younger siblings it just wasn't possible to get good quality photos, because literally nobody would be still except when they were sitting at the tables eating, and then they still weren't really still.
So my main go-to mantra was to get the event in general, and by all means get the cake. I took way more pictures than these, but this is just a collage of a few of them. My daughter and son-in-law were really happy with them, so remembering that it was event photography and not subject photography saved the day, I think.
The funniest thing is a minute after we got there I realized that since the party wasn't in my daughter's back yard I had absolutely no idea among the hundreds of children there who were guests at Khalil's party. There are four party rooms. So I just had to follow Khalil and take pictures of him and the kids with him at any given time. There are more of those, too, not just these few.
I just wanted to thank you all again for your help. It really made a difference.
I used Full Auto mode, an 18-55mm kit lens, and shot only JPG, because nobody was going to want anything processed (takes too long) and JPG was all they were going to use. I wouldn't call these good quality photos, but they captured what my daughter and son-in-law wanted, so that's what counted.